The whole nation: You're put to survive on a desolate planet, you'll be running an alien b

The roar of the landing craft's engines ripped through the silence of the sea, like a sharp knife slicing through the thick, bloody stench of the island behind them. The sea breeze, carrying salty, damp air, lashed against the deck and the faces of the prisoners who had just regained their freedom but were still reeling from the shock.

Li Haotian stood at the stern, coldly watching the group of ragged, crazed people. They were still crying and shouting; some knelt on the ground thanking the heavens, while others frantically grabbed at the ship's meager fresh water and food, their eyes gleaming with the ferocity of wild beasts.

"Brother Li, are we really just going to leave them like this?" Liu Hu wiped the seawater from his face and glanced at the group with some worry. "These guys have been tormented by those crazy scientists for half a year. If we take them back, D.H.I.E.L.D. will probably..."

"Take them back?" Li Haotian sneered, his fingers rapidly tapping on the already damaged encrypted communicator. "Taking them back would mean taking back dozens of ticking time bombs that could explode at any moment, a hot potato that Dragon Shield has to deal with. Our mission is to find out the truth, not to open a charity shelter."

With the final confirmation button pressed, a string of anonymous coordinates, encrypted through multiple layers, traveled like a ghost across thousands of kilometers of ocean and was precisely sent to the highest-security mailbox at the Dragon Shield headquarters.

Those were the precise geographical coordinates of the death row island, along with a brief "cleanup guide".

"This is a greeting gift for the authorities." Li Haotian put away his communicator, his gaze sweeping over the group of dazed prisoners. His voice was as cold as ice in the sea. "Tell Dragon Shield that if they don't want these guys to cause new 'Void Mutations' in the coastal cities, they'd better act quickly."

He turned and walked into the cabin, ignoring the noise behind him. In this game, these people were just discarded pieces on the chessboard; the only "trophy" he wanted to take was lying quietly on a makeshift stretcher deep inside the cabin.

Lin Mo.

The girl, auctioned off as a "commodity" aboard the Poseidon, was currently in a deep coma. Her face was almost translucent with paleness, her brows furrowed, as if she were experiencing some unspeakable torture in her dream. Deep within her frail body, Li Haotian could clearly sense an energy fluctuation suppressed to the extreme—it was not the aura of an ordinary person, but fragments of memories about the true origin of the "Child of the Void," a key that could unlock all mysteries.

Several days later, Donghai City.

As night falls, this bustling Eastern metropolis is illuminated by countless neon lights, resembling a colossal beast draped in a gleaming coat, crouching on the shores of the East China Sea. The glass curtain walls of skyscrapers reflect the colorful lights, and the streets teem with traffic, the clamor masking the undercurrents surging beneath the surface of this city.

Li Haotian stood before the floor-to-ceiling window of his high-rise apartment in the city center, a cigarette dangling from his fingers. Outside, the city lights shimmered, and below him stretched the unfathomable depths of neon. But the scene before him seemed to constantly overlap with the eerie, terrifying death row island he had witnessed just days before.

Although the aftermath of the imperial tomb incident has subsided, the shadow of the "God-Maker" has not dissipated; on the contrary, it has become clearer and more sinister after this island incident. The collapse of Apocalypse Bio, the exposure of the Divine Grace Trust, and even the destruction of Death Row Island, are merely the tip of the iceberg, revealing a vast empire. Beneath that iceberg lies even more madness and evil unknown to him.

"call……"

Li Haotian exhaled a soft breath and crushed the cigarette in his palm. In the room behind him, Qin Yue was organizing the data brought back from the island, Su Wan was monitoring the movements of Dragon Shield, and Liu Hu was on guard. Everything seemed orderly, but the tension in his heart remained high.

Because Lin Mo woke up.

Or rather, she was in a strange, half-awake state.

Li Haotian turned around, his gaze falling on the sofa in the corner of the room. Lin Mo lay there quietly, like a fragile porcelain doll. On the sofa armrest, Xiao Hei, all black, sat upright, its eyes, which gleamed with a faint golden light in the darkness, staring intently at Lin Mo, unblinking.

Xiao Hei's posture was strange. It wasn't sleeping or grooming itself. Instead, it was arching its back and its tail tip was trembling slightly, as if it had encountered an extremely difficult opponent or was trying its best to suppress some kind of instinctive impulse.

"What did you see?" Li Haotian walked to Xiao Hei's side, squatted down, and reached out to scratch its chin.

Instead of its usual comfortable purring, Xiao Hei abruptly turned its head, its vertical pupils shrinking to pinpoints, and a series of extremely low, almost inaudible whimpers emanating from its throat. It gently patted Lin Mo's hand with its paw, then quickly withdrew it, as if it had touched something extremely cold.

"This little guy is acting strange today." Qin Yue closed her tablet and walked over, whispering, "Ever since we got back, it's been staring at Lin Mo. And Lin Mo's brainwave monitoring data shows that her subconscious is extremely active, even more so than that half-human, half-god monster, Professor Chen."

Li Haotian frowned, his gaze turning deep as he looked at Lin Mo. The girl suddenly trembled, her eyelashes fluttering violently. Then, without warning, a line of crimson tears slid down from her tightly closed eyes, dripping onto the pristine white pillowcase—a shocking sight.

"It's...talking..."

Lin Mo's lips moved slightly, the sound coming out dry and broken, as if it came from an extremely distant place, with an ethereal echo.

Li Haotian's eyes narrowed, and he immediately leaned down, bringing his lips close to hers: "Who's speaking? Lin Mo, what did you hear?"

"Abyss... Mirror... Reflection..."

Lin Mo's voice was broken and intermittent, each word uttered with immense pain, "It said...it wasn't created...it...has always been here...it's watching us...watching...outside the mirror..."

Li Haotian's heart skipped a beat.

Outside the mirror? This idea is too far-fetched. If the Child of the Void is a product of the so-called "God-Making" project, then why would such a concept appear in Lin Mo's memories?

He straightened up and looked out at the night sky. The neon lights shone through the glass, casting interplay of light and shadow on his face. The artifacts of the imperial tombs, the experiments on Death Row Island, the auction of the Poseidon… all the clues seemed to point to a vague and elusive “origin.” Everyone was trying to harness the power of the void, but perhaps, from the very beginning, they had gone in the wrong direction.

It is not an energy that can be captured and utilized, but an observer, a vast consciousness existing on the other side of the "mirror".

"I see." Li Haotian muttered to himself, a fierce glint flashing in his eyes. "The so-called 'creating a god' is not about creating something from nothing, but about summoning that thing in, or... turning oneself into a part of that thing."

He turned his head to look at the still wary Little Black. This mysterious creature seemed to have sensed something long ago; its complex gaze towards Lin Mo wasn't out of fear, but rather apprehension. It was apprehensive about the "voice" awakening within Lin Mo.

"It seems we don't need to go through those tedious files anymore." Li Haotian gently wiped away the blood and tears from Lin Mo's eyes, his movements so gentle that they were completely different from his previous coldness. "The real answer lies in her mind."

"Where to next?" Qin Yue asked, her hand already unconsciously reaching for the gun handle at her waist.

Li Haotian walked to the window and opened it a crack. The cold night wind rushed into the room, dispelling the faint smell of blood. He looked down at the brightly lit city, his gaze seemingly piercing through the layers of buildings, looking into the distant and deeper unknown.

"Investigate the source of that 'voice'." Li Haotian's voice was exceptionally clear in the night wind. "Since Lin Mo mentioned the mirror, let's go see who erected it. There are more things buried beneath Donghai City than we imagined."

He turned around, looked at Qin Yue and Xiao Hei, and a fighting spirit curled up at the corner of his mouth.

"Get ready, we'll set off after dawn."

Xiao Hei finally stopped staring at Lin Mo. It jumped onto Li Haotian's shoulder and let out a short, powerful cry towards the darkness outside the window. The previous hesitation was gone from its voice; only the determination to step into the abyss with its master remained.

New clues have emerged, and this time, they may be facing a madness that is beyond human comprehension. Donghai City remains bustling under its neon lights, but in Li Haotian's eyes, the city is slowly peeling away its glamorous exterior, revealing its狰狞 (zhengning - ferocious/hideous) true nature beneath.

The journey has only just begun.